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The big spines look bad, but what really gets you are the many, almost microscopic tiny ones at the base of each big one.  They hurt, and it takes a tweezers and magnifying glass to get them out.

The little cup-like things at the top of some of the pads are the "pears."   When ripe they turn reddish, and they make a pretty good jelly.

Thank you for this explanation.  Has Mrs B ever made jelly out of it?  I can just imagine what the first settlers went through as they traveled through the desert, this really brings the horrors to life!

Beautiful picture!

We've never tried doing jelly with it.   During droughts, cowboys will sometimes use home-made kerosene torches to burn off the spines.   Once that's done, the cattle will eat them.   The pads are also edible, and sometimes they show up in Mexican food stores here.   They are called nopales.   I kinda like them raw.

http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-cactus.html

Thank you for the explanation!  Would love to try them. Would also like to try the jelly!

Nice shot - Ive tried the 'pears' in Morocco where they grow in abundance - the fruit is often seen for sale around the markets - need special equipment to get to the fruit of course, and also the plant which is used to make/obtain fibre for making all sorts of beautiful textiles as cactus silk...